A long hiatus and a brief update

I've not written in over a month due to lack of inspiration, but that doesn't mean nothing has happened. In the past month I have done some traveling, saw my third year students graduate, signed on for a major musical project, and am in the process of enjoying the ephemeral cherry blossoms characteristic of springtime in Japan.

Places Visited

A few weeks ago I went to Tokyo to meet a bunch of friends from the Internet, as you do. Did the usual drinking, clubbing, singing and all that. Had dinner at an Uzbek/Turkish restaurant with belly dancers and hookahs one night. One interesting new experience I had in Tokyo, aside from those which are not fit to write about on a public blog, was going to a cat cafe. It is exactly what it sounds like - you pay a fee of roughly ￥1000 to sit in this big pink salon style room where there are a dozen or so cats sitting around that you can pet and play with, and the staff serves hot beverages to go with your cat. Very quaint, but the sort of suffocating quaint where it's just so sweet that you feel miserably depressed.

I also went to Nagasaki with Walter for a long weekend. I was unpleasantly surprised to see that the city itself was kind of drab and run-down, with only its natural geography and of course the irresistible allure of the atomic bomb memorial museum and Peace Park to draw in tourists. I don't know what I expected from Nagasaki but I felt a little disappointed; perhaps I expected it would be more sunny and California-esque the way Sasebo is. Did the obligatory visit to the atomic bomb museum; it was quite well done and lacked any sort of intrusive political agenda aside from (somewhat obviously) being pro-nuclear disarmament. I met an old woman in the Peace Park near the epicenter of the bombing who was a survivor, she was five years old when Nagasaki was bombed and remembered that there used to be a cherry tomato patch where it fell.

Graduation and Staff Changes

Not much to report here. The third years graduated, which was pretty bittersweet since they were my favorite year of students. I hope they do well for themselves and don't all end up working at the Trial (fake Wal-Mart) in Tagawa. A couple of them email me sometimes but it's really a fool's hope to think I can really keep in touch with anyone for that long.

As mandated by the stupid Troglodyte Council of Retards (prefectural Board of Education), the carnival lottery system has spoken and we are undergoing major staff changes from April 1. This year the principal and BOTH vice principals are changing, as well as three English teachers and a whole bunch of other teachers. The entire office staff downstairs are changing too. While I welcome new coworkers who are possibly better than their predecessors, it's pretty awful that my favorite English teacher is being transferred. I will never understand this crap-chute system of moving employees around.

Musical Endeavors

I signed on to play violin at a charity concert in June. It's being held at the Fukuoka Christian Center for the sake of decent acoustics and performance hall space. Apparently I am collaborating with someone else, who knew. My ideas for what to play are as follows, and definitely still a work in progress....

-Sonata for Violin and Piano in A, Cesar Franck, Mvmts III and/or IV - solo violin
-Arirang (Korean folk song) - solo violin
-Sea Chantey/Metallica medley - violin and guitar
-Cover of "Clovenhoof" by Tiamat - violin and guitar

Aside from the charity concert I am also thinking of shattering the glass walls preventing me and Walter from playing music together. We're both better than terrible at what we do, and could probably be a formidable for-fun stage act. Miho is organizing a party with local musicians for the end of May and I'd like to offer my goods and services to that.

Springtime?

It is fucking cold this year. Today the high is supposed to be 12 and the low a pathetic 2. I wore my heavy wool trenchcoat to work today and was still stupidly cold on the walk this morning. Cut the bullshit please, I don't want to sit around looking at cherry blossoms wrapped in fifteen blankets and shivering. I did go to a lovely nighttime event in Kumamoto this past weekend, something of a festival of cherry blossoms and 8,000 lit candles in a temple on a hill.

Fucking badasses.

Oh I totally forgot to mention Sunday was the Bota Rock 2010 rock festival in Tagawa. As a musical event it was spectacularly good, and possibly even better for straight up people watching. Toothless old men with missing fingers, aging bar hostesses without panties, junior high school kids in uniform, and all varieties of rockabillies and pompadour-sporting greasers flung themselves around to 7 bands ranging from Celine Dion-esque diva solo singers to a junior high school band covering the Ventures and a working-class doo-wop/boogie outfit who actually went the distance and wrote a catchy song about the local private train line. Unforgettably fun time, reminded me that rock and roll is not dead. And I will be updating this post with photos.

Romanticism, mortality and the sea

I started reading "Moby Dick" this weekend. I read the damned thing cover to cover in the third grade but obviously almost all of it went over my head and I forgot everything.

I am trying to restrict myself to reading it only on trains, or it will be over too quickly and I'll have nothing else to look forward to (well, that's never true is it?). That whole bit in the beginning about how humankind is inexplicably yet without question drawn to the sea is so true. Coupled with the perfect soundtrack, I think "reading Moby Dick" may make an appearance on a census questionnaire enquiring my personal hobbies and interests.

Did anyone else dream of being a 19th century whaler or sailor when they were a kid? Even after staring at color pictures from the 1990s-2000s of dead whales being processed on Japanese whaling ships with their modern luxuries and rubber boots, I always thought it would be the COOLEST thing to just hop on a ship and go on an "Old Thunder"-esque quest for humanity and whales and sit in a crows' nest (we spoiled young things would require such comforts versus standard mast-heads) contemplating the complexity of human nature and livelihood. In particular, old-school sperm whalers were most especially badasses, going out in those tiny harpoon boats to poke the damned things to death.

The same morbid curiosity that wonders if rigor mortis extends to the male genitalia inspires a similarly taboo ponderance and interest; what horrific sounds and unnatural motions do whales make when they are in their death throes? How do pods collapse and implode when they are threatened by starvation, violence, insanity? I've been reading about the Essex, the whaling ship that was destroyed by an angry sperm whale in 1820, and how the crew resorted to cannibalism and piss drinking for survival. Same on the raft of the Medusa, the inspiration for that famous oil painting. Driven to utter desperation, humans revert to bestial natures which always float in the subconscious. So what do the Leviathans do?

Buried

Back to the swing...cold nights, cold days, warm bed, and still haven't taught any classes upon returning to Japan. I'll be amazed if I'm not covered in bedsores in the near future. Last week I went to bed at the unheard-of hours of (before midnight o'clock) almost every night. I'm back to my usual zombie-like 2 am-7 am sleep schedule and it feels terrible, which is just how I love it.



It's always rough coming back after visiting home. It's hard not to sit around wondering "why did I leave insulated buildings and the possibility of Pepperidge Farm Cake to come back to an impoverished industrial city with rice paddies?"



But slowly I'm re-adjusting. Haven't succumbed completely to winter blues; I still suspect I've got a slight dopamine imbalance that keeps me grinning when everyone else is down. I realize the mundane things in my utterly meaningless existence are what make life beautiful. Things like singing Vengaboys for the 34564th time at karaoke in Shinnyu, shoving eggplant into my face at the Suizenji Shokudo when I visit Walter in Kumamoto, and posting drivel on a web forum 8 hours a day are all delightful in their own way.

In more exciting news, I may have a lead for a free ticket to Wacken Open Air Metal Festival held in Wacken, Germany, in early August. I have also planned trips to the three largest cities in Japan to frolic in the next couple months.

childhood diaries, big laughs

At the risk of my own neck, I am posting an excerpt from my Minnie Mouse diary of yesteryear in which I fantasize wildly about slaying my gym teacher.

May 21, 1995

Dear Diary,
Crap, shit, fuck, ass, bitch, bloody, hell, poop, brain infected, butt sniffing, bubble butt, fart factory, BLIP! I hate school! I wish Mr. ***** would spontaneously combust and get electrocuted by the devil! I wish he would go through the worst agony ever! I hope he was killed by the Unabomber! I'm not sorry at all. He hurt me, and now I want him to die in pain and go to hell, and take ***** with him! I wish he'd drop dead, and I hope he's having a heart attack! I want him to get beaten up and tortured till he dies! I hope I never see him again! I'd like him to retch the rest of his life! I wanna kill 'im! I hope right now, there is a dagger in his throat! I hope he dies right now! I hope he is burned up and the ashes are destroyed! I hope he has A-bombs exploding in his house now! I hope his family escapes but he is trapped! I hope no one gives him the least bit of mercy! I want him to be whipped and cut up and made into man stew by Friday and Robinson [Crusoe]! I hope his funeral is cancelled, and people make fun of his tombstone & he breaks every bone in his burning body! I hope he's dead already! I laugh at his death!!

I HATE HIM!

DROP DEAD, MISTER POOPHEAD!

Merry Christmas everyone!

christmas cards

One of life's little joys is making Christmas cards for my friends. This year I have quite a few to make. I have a ton of material sitting around the house so I'm trying to make them as interesting as possible. I actually made a special trip to the 100 yen store to pick up markers, glitter glue pens, envelopes, paper, and tape. Coupled with the quality Christmas music I've recently acquired, I've been quite happy in welcoming December. It's already December! Can you believe it?

I'm headed home in 16 days. Mentally, I've already checked out so to speak. I have visions of being bundled up at airports, hitting up favorite spots like P.F. Chang's Colonie Center and Wolf Road Starbucks, and wailing at Bourbon Street karaoke for my birthday party. Laugh all you want - I'm thinking I want Americanized Japanese food for my birthday dinner.

Oh, and when I got home from work today someone had put up barbed wire by my balcony. I'd like to see you get past that, wall-scaling pervert!

x-posted from osharejunks: "favorite boutique"

Maison Gilfy does everything right.

I've only been to one location - Parco in Kumamoto Shimotori - but everything is perfect. How to describe their stuff - maybe the perfect fusion of ギャル　and "badass."

I'm mainly a big fan for the shoes/boots and consistent supply of studded leather bags.

The music choice is flawless too.

what a terrible ending for a great weekend.

I came home around 7:45 tonight, heard a funny noise, went out, and found some random middle aged man had climbed onto my balcony and was crouching there doing god knows what. I yelled at him and he just apologized politely, jumped from the second floor to the ground, landed in some grass, and walked away.

I talked to the building manager and now I gotta go talk to the police. They're coming any minute.

God this sucks. I can't wait to get away for Christmas for 2 weeks.

Fear: appetite suppressant of the gods.

It's been a while.

Life has been good. I have spent too much money and now eat a small portion of pasta for dinner every night. I went to Nagoya to eat at the Outback Steakhouse with some of my girlfriends. I celebrated Halloween at a post-bubble-economy resort complex dressed as an Islamic terrorist. I've had that annual crisis where I decide I have no idea what to do with myself relationship-wise. I have some interesting new friends. This weekend I am going to serve hot dogs and beer to cute police officers among others at Miho's restaurant's 10th anniversary party. I hope to see some of you there.

I booked a ticket to go home for Christmas. $1,470. I will go from Fukuoka via Nagoya to Detroit and then to Albany, racking up plenty of Northwest mileage. I'll be in the area from December 18 to January 4. Again, I hope to see some of you there.

Everyone is moving and shaking and sometimes I feel like a fly on the wall rather than an actual participant in life. It could very well be due to a general lack of drive, hobbies, and cleanliness at home. Even the routines that kept me happy have fallen wayward as of late due to self-induced poverty.

November blues are real and we shouldn't refuse to acknowledge them. But at the end of the day, I live in a beautiful place. I thought about that on the way to this really tedious meeting in Yoshizuka today, where I had to pitch my idea for how to present "Internationalization in the Classroom" and I was underprepared and not "there" mentally. The car ride there and back made me gasp just like it did my first day in Fukuoka. Steep curvaceous mountains covered in bamboo forests and leaves turning red and a thick layer of mist because it rained today.

there's my chippy!

Jellyfish, Osaka Aquarium

Burgundy, no words.

The hair needed to be darker for fall.

I know music is something so personal that many people (myself included sometimes) prefer to enjoy their favorite songs in solitude, but this one is really so touching and lovely that I want to share it.

Goth for fall.

I've decided that my preferred look is "goth-lite." Enough to get you into the goth club, but not enough to draw negative attention from normal people. Just some chunky laceup boots here, some bold makeup there, hints of lace and lots of black.

I have also rediscovered Clan of Xymox. They are just so, so good. Go find them.

Mixtape!

I made this specifically for a friend, but you can have it too.

Megaupload

Tracklisting:

1.) So Nyeo Shi Dae “Gee”
2.) Zoot Woman “Just A Friend of Mine”
3.) Maskinen “Segertåget”
4.) Kino “Gruppa Krovi”
5.) Larry Levan “Change/Paradise”
6.) Virgin Prunes “Love Lasts Forever”
7.) Split Mirrors “I Give My Love To You”
8.) Soft Ballet “Obsession”
9.) Cosmicity “I Want You”
10.) Siouxsie and the Banshees “Dazzle”
11.) Secret Service “Let Us Dance Just A Little Bit More”
12.) Ami Suzuki “Super Music Make”
13.) Joyless “Why Should I Cry”
14.) Clan of Xymox “No Human Can Drown”
15.) Dannii Minogue “Push”
16.) Sisters of Mercy “Body and Soul”
17.) Robert Palmer “Johnny and Mary”
18.) Armoury Show “Glory of Love”
19.) Tom Tom Club “Genius of Love”
20.) Moodymann “M Traxx”

Pretty much all of them fall into the category of house, new romantic, post-punk/goth, or straight pop.